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Gr00vus's Favorite 50 Songs - 1: Synchronicity II (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Gr00vus
- Start date
Gr00vus
Footballguy
"I'm not talking about burning down a building, I'm talking about the soul."
18: Disco Inferno, The Trammps, 1976
That's right, 1976. This song was recycled to be part of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977 (and thus became a much bigger hit than it was at first release). The original album track is over 10 minutes long, so I linked to the edit above for those in a hurry.
Another poster in another thread (sorry I don't have time to track the post down, go ahead and claim credit with link if you're that person) made the very astute observation that this is a mash up of gospel and disco (moreso than disco was already a gospel offshoot). The instrumental track is pure disco, the vocal track is pure gospel. Jimmy Ellis's lead vocals are the gravelly exhortations straight from a revival minister sermon, while the backing vocals are the choir responding. As such it gives the sound a much different, urgent feel than a lot of the silky smooth disco vocals from other songs of the time. The horns are prominent, the drums a solid, if uninspired disco beat (though I do like the approach taken to accenting the ands of the rythm in the verses), some interesting underwater sounding effects on either a synth or a guitar (not sure which).
Behind the horns and the vocals which somewhat dominate the song, is a killer bass line. That's the thing about this tune that sticks with me. I'll hum it on occasion for no particular reason. I'm fairly certain this what was behind the bass line/song "David Brent" is emitting when he displays his epic dance moves in that scene from the original (British) Office t.v. show. Both excellent dances. This song has shown up in lots of other media spots since Saturday Night Fever as well.
18: Disco Inferno, The Trammps, 1976
That's right, 1976. This song was recycled to be part of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977 (and thus became a much bigger hit than it was at first release). The original album track is over 10 minutes long, so I linked to the edit above for those in a hurry.
Another poster in another thread (sorry I don't have time to track the post down, go ahead and claim credit with link if you're that person) made the very astute observation that this is a mash up of gospel and disco (moreso than disco was already a gospel offshoot). The instrumental track is pure disco, the vocal track is pure gospel. Jimmy Ellis's lead vocals are the gravelly exhortations straight from a revival minister sermon, while the backing vocals are the choir responding. As such it gives the sound a much different, urgent feel than a lot of the silky smooth disco vocals from other songs of the time. The horns are prominent, the drums a solid, if uninspired disco beat (though I do like the approach taken to accenting the ands of the rythm in the verses), some interesting underwater sounding effects on either a synth or a guitar (not sure which).
Behind the horns and the vocals which somewhat dominate the song, is a killer bass line. That's the thing about this tune that sticks with me. I'll hum it on occasion for no particular reason. I'm fairly certain this what was behind the bass line/song "David Brent" is emitting when he displays his epic dance moves in that scene from the original (British) Office t.v. show. Both excellent dances. This song has shown up in lots of other media spots since Saturday Night Fever as well.
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wikkidpissah
Footballguy
TSOP, baby. dongitnobettah.
Gives me a chance to wax poetic on my HS sweetheart, still the sexiest human being i've ever known (not met - Rosanna Arquette, who once kissed my pants prior to passing out in my lap as i was trying to get there b4 she got too high, wins that one - but known) and with whom i had an on/off thang for almost 50 yrs. Betsy moved to Salem, as part of her father's executive course up from Georgia thru Philly, Tri-Cities to Boston up the GE ladder, not long after i did and she's the only girl ever thunderstruck me. A little Bardot, a little Audrey Hepburn & a whole lotta sexangel in that girl, even when she was twelve. She has a walk that hip-mo-tized anyone in its wake, including her sons' friends who couldn't hep but watch datazz sexbob hither & yon when i was last in NM 5 yrs ago (she had just turned 60). Didn't wear a brassiere until she was nursing her 1st child and watching her girls flutter around inside her blouses was a hippie delight. Girls are a LOT hotter now than they used to be, but Betsy almost singlehandedly made up for that.
And that wasn't the most remarkable thing about her - that girl could flat sing. The combination of her gutbucket gospel upbringing, nouveau riche insouciance and hippiegirl zeal gave her singing this bluesbutterfly quality i havent heard before or since. And she had that rare gift of bringing untraditional notes in and resolving them like Laura Nyro or Joni Mitchell did that made her a true one of a kind. I will take her version of TMonk's 'Round Midnight over any other, and Ella, Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter, Chaka Khan, Cassandra Wilson & Amy Winehouse have sung it.
I thought i understood music until Betsy invited me to come with when her fam went to visit their friends from their time in Bucks County. Betsy and her bff Margo (unfortunately Margo died in her teens, a whole nuther story) had been in choir together and Betsy said Margo was the blastingest singer she ever heard. It turned out to be true to the extent that, @ 16yo, she was one of two white people in the best gospel choir in Philly.
The next few days would prove that being among the best in Philly musically meant being among the best in the world. I never caught a name but, from Margo's choir to the singing groups of choir members she took us to hang with, i never saw so many black & white people doing stuff together nor heard such original & inspiring notefinding in all their testifications. Betsy hung right in there with them folks and, because she was way hot even at 14-15, got a whole bunch of attention that week. I wouldn't be surprised if she still considered it the funnest week of her life. It was the end of any musical aspirations i had for a very long time because it was simply so far above what i thought non-famous people were capable of that i couldnt imagine what the pros were up to. Later in the music biz i tried to get Philly people (Bonnie's bass player Freebo was from that scene but didnt like me much) to get me immersed in that scene again but, except for watching Todd Rundgren find the notes or sounds that EVERYBODY @ Bearsville studio needed for their tracks, i never bore witness to it again.
Which is why it doesnt surprise me that my two favorite disco songs of all time are Disco Inferno and Ain't No Stopping Us Now, both part of the Sound of Philadelphia. You hit this'n out da park, my friend.
P.S. So, wikkid - if one of the gals you have loved evermost in your life has this unprecedented musical talent and you were such a bigwig in da biz backinaday, why don't we already & still know her name. One of the great heartbreaks of my life - Betsy has a fear of performing solo that a lot of singers do that makes her need to be playing an instrument while she sings. Problem is she is one of the most singularly bad piano players in the whole wide world. It's very unusual, clunky style that is to music what clogs are to footwear and is impossible to bury in a mix. She sings in a lot of commercials in NM and can do Patti Page to Miley Cyrus in beautiful and distinctive ways but you can't watch her second show in the cabaret gigs she's able to get cuz you got a headache for some reason. damn shame -
Gives me a chance to wax poetic on my HS sweetheart, still the sexiest human being i've ever known (not met - Rosanna Arquette, who once kissed my pants prior to passing out in my lap as i was trying to get there b4 she got too high, wins that one - but known) and with whom i had an on/off thang for almost 50 yrs. Betsy moved to Salem, as part of her father's executive course up from Georgia thru Philly, Tri-Cities to Boston up the GE ladder, not long after i did and she's the only girl ever thunderstruck me. A little Bardot, a little Audrey Hepburn & a whole lotta sexangel in that girl, even when she was twelve. She has a walk that hip-mo-tized anyone in its wake, including her sons' friends who couldn't hep but watch datazz sexbob hither & yon when i was last in NM 5 yrs ago (she had just turned 60). Didn't wear a brassiere until she was nursing her 1st child and watching her girls flutter around inside her blouses was a hippie delight. Girls are a LOT hotter now than they used to be, but Betsy almost singlehandedly made up for that.
And that wasn't the most remarkable thing about her - that girl could flat sing. The combination of her gutbucket gospel upbringing, nouveau riche insouciance and hippiegirl zeal gave her singing this bluesbutterfly quality i havent heard before or since. And she had that rare gift of bringing untraditional notes in and resolving them like Laura Nyro or Joni Mitchell did that made her a true one of a kind. I will take her version of TMonk's 'Round Midnight over any other, and Ella, Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter, Chaka Khan, Cassandra Wilson & Amy Winehouse have sung it.
I thought i understood music until Betsy invited me to come with when her fam went to visit their friends from their time in Bucks County. Betsy and her bff Margo (unfortunately Margo died in her teens, a whole nuther story) had been in choir together and Betsy said Margo was the blastingest singer she ever heard. It turned out to be true to the extent that, @ 16yo, she was one of two white people in the best gospel choir in Philly.
The next few days would prove that being among the best in Philly musically meant being among the best in the world. I never caught a name but, from Margo's choir to the singing groups of choir members she took us to hang with, i never saw so many black & white people doing stuff together nor heard such original & inspiring notefinding in all their testifications. Betsy hung right in there with them folks and, because she was way hot even at 14-15, got a whole bunch of attention that week. I wouldn't be surprised if she still considered it the funnest week of her life. It was the end of any musical aspirations i had for a very long time because it was simply so far above what i thought non-famous people were capable of that i couldnt imagine what the pros were up to. Later in the music biz i tried to get Philly people (Bonnie's bass player Freebo was from that scene but didnt like me much) to get me immersed in that scene again but, except for watching Todd Rundgren find the notes or sounds that EVERYBODY @ Bearsville studio needed for their tracks, i never bore witness to it again.
Which is why it doesnt surprise me that my two favorite disco songs of all time are Disco Inferno and Ain't No Stopping Us Now, both part of the Sound of Philadelphia. You hit this'n out da park, my friend.
P.S. So, wikkid - if one of the gals you have loved evermost in your life has this unprecedented musical talent and you were such a bigwig in da biz backinaday, why don't we already & still know her name. One of the great heartbreaks of my life - Betsy has a fear of performing solo that a lot of singers do that makes her need to be playing an instrument while she sings. Problem is she is one of the most singularly bad piano players in the whole wide world. It's very unusual, clunky style that is to music what clogs are to footwear and is impossible to bury in a mix. She sings in a lot of commercials in NM and can do Patti Page to Miley Cyrus in beautiful and distinctive ways but you can't watch her second show in the cabaret gigs she's able to get cuz you got a headache for some reason. damn shame -
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
The bolded nails it.
Jimmy Ellis was as good as any singer in rock history for these few minutes. And his band was as good as any, too. for those few minutes.
And then they were gone.
Gr00vus
Footballguy
If you ever get a chance to watch that Bowie documentary I linked to a few posts ago, you'll see that when Bowie decided to kill Ziggy and go for soul, the place he knew he had to go and the people he knew he needed to make music with were the folks in Philadelphia. Young Americans couldn't have been done anywhere or with anyone else.
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Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
Did you grow up in studio 54?
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Instead of one of those baby mobiles he had a disco ball hanging over his crib.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
PBS showed "Five Years" when Bowie died - can you believe it's almost 3 yrs now?! - but info runs thru me like hummus now. But, yeah, there may have been greater talents @ Motown or even Stax/Volt, but the commitment & love in Philly was unprecedented. I have a Gamble & Huff box set and that #### is just warm in me as Christmas.
Gr00vus
Footballguy
"When I'm sad, she comes to me, with a thousand smiles she gives to me free."
17: Little Wing, Sting, 1987
I'm going with the Sting version here, but you're welcome to imagine whatever version you like best in this spot. I wouldn't argue with a different version. I think I like this one first, Stevie Ray Vaughn's version next, and then Hendrix's own version.
While the late 80's heavy production approach taints this version (I'm sure @Eephus will regale us with how bad it really is shortly) - in particular the somewhat constrained bass sound and especially the Kenny-Gish sax solo courtesy Branford Marsalis - I love the overall effect of the track. A completely different band plays this track than the one that played on the rest of the Nothing Like The Sun album. In particular Sting brought in Gil Evans and his orchestra, with Gil Evans arranging the song. Evans is most famous for his work with Miles Davis on some of Davis's albums in the 50's and 60's. Here Evans gives the song a smoother, jazzier feel than it usually has.
Kenwood Dennard plays a wonderful drum track, serene and understated during the verses, bold and commanding through the chorus, with great support for the soloists. I particularly like the fills he supplies in the exchange of solo times and as the song reaches and passes its concluding climax. Hiram Bullock pulls off the unenviable task of playing guitar and laying down the guitar solo on this Hendrix tune, and I think he does so brilliantly. The thing that sets this version apart from others, for me anyway, is Sting's vocals. I know some don't really appreciate his tone, but on this one he lends an ethereal passion that I don't hear from most others who sing this song. With that, the whole thing feels sultry, warm, comforting yet a little sad all at the same time.
It's such a beautiful song, sometimes it gives me goosebumps.
17: Little Wing, Sting, 1987
I'm going with the Sting version here, but you're welcome to imagine whatever version you like best in this spot. I wouldn't argue with a different version. I think I like this one first, Stevie Ray Vaughn's version next, and then Hendrix's own version.
While the late 80's heavy production approach taints this version (I'm sure @Eephus will regale us with how bad it really is shortly) - in particular the somewhat constrained bass sound and especially the Kenny-Gish sax solo courtesy Branford Marsalis - I love the overall effect of the track. A completely different band plays this track than the one that played on the rest of the Nothing Like The Sun album. In particular Sting brought in Gil Evans and his orchestra, with Gil Evans arranging the song. Evans is most famous for his work with Miles Davis on some of Davis's albums in the 50's and 60's. Here Evans gives the song a smoother, jazzier feel than it usually has.
Kenwood Dennard plays a wonderful drum track, serene and understated during the verses, bold and commanding through the chorus, with great support for the soloists. I particularly like the fills he supplies in the exchange of solo times and as the song reaches and passes its concluding climax. Hiram Bullock pulls off the unenviable task of playing guitar and laying down the guitar solo on this Hendrix tune, and I think he does so brilliantly. The thing that sets this version apart from others, for me anyway, is Sting's vocals. I know some don't really appreciate his tone, but on this one he lends an ethereal passion that I don't hear from most others who sing this song. With that, the whole thing feels sultry, warm, comforting yet a little sad all at the same time.
It's such a beautiful song, sometimes it gives me goosebumps.
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Apple Jack
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
timschochet
Footballguy
I’m sorry but nothing beats the Derek and the Dominoes version, with Clapton and Duane Allman dueling it out on electric guitar.
Mike Damone
Footballguy
You might have the most eclectic taste in music I’ve come across and I applaud you for it. This song reminds me of Larry Bird. I remember the CBS tv package on Larry when the Celts drafted him a year early from the NCAA tourney
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Great song but with all the covers of lw out there I might have just stuck with the original.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
I would disagree with you in the most violent terms, but will instead recuse myself for huge personal bias.
The first reason is that it's a football Sunday and i dont have time. #2 is that mourning the death of Jimi Hendrix was my last act as a child.
In Feb of '70, i knocked up a neighbor of my auntie's who i spent my Feb & Apr school vacations with. I was 15 but Patty was 17, graduated school juuuust before her pregnancy started to show. For months she did not tell her parents who had done this and no one guessed cuz i didn't live around there. Her old man, a union boss and reputed Mafiosi (two of his sons died violently and my now 48yo son is rumored to run chop shops for the Mob, so they might be 'made') married her off to one of his foremen (oddly, they're still together), but was still after Patty to know the who the baby's father was.
I was a couple wks into my junior year of high school when Hendrix died. Got home from school one day, went down to my dank basement bedroom, turned on the stereo and they were playing one of my favorite Hendrix songs, If 6 was 9. Then the DJ announced that Hendrix was dead. I was shocked. I took a LOT of psychedelics in those days but, when i went to my secret cigar box, my supply consisted of a tab of mescaline and a chipped orange sunshine barrel. Popped em both (street acid was pretty weak) & listened to the Hendrix songs WBCN was playing in memoriam until the room & sounds started to flibber. With the #### kickin in, i needed to hear If 6 was 9 again, cuz it's got that thing at the end where he speaks "Got my own life to live......i'm the one that's gotta die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way i want TO...........yeah..........sing on, brother.....play on drummer" and then trails away with some amazing feedback manipulation.
The stereo kicks the needle back to the beginning of the side, but i was zoning on that epitaph and just gr00ved along. When the side ended, i put the needle back on If 6 was 9 again&again&again. To break it up a li'l bit i brought the needle back to the song before it, Little Wing and zoned & freaked & cried, did it again & zoned & freaked & cried and did that til the peeps shouted down, so i headphoned that LW/I6W9/zone/freak/cry cycle til my head cleared in the morning.
Two nights later, Patty calls me and says her dad threatened to fire her new husband and leave em both out in the cold unless she told who the father was. Her brother Chuckie, though the only one with even an inkling we'd ever been sweet on each other, couldnt stop laughing (but he was like that - Chuckie got verrrry happy just before he beat people up) but then was the major proponent, tho only 16 himself and a friend since we were little, of doing me major violence. Patty said it was unlikely they would do anything til the next weekend.
I didn't wait around to find out. My folks were both gonna be out of the house on Tuesday evening, so i got my Boy Scout pack/frame/bag out of the garage, called my auntie and got her to try to head them off (God bless her, she kept our secret her whole life), had my best pal drive me to the end of Plum Island (a nearby 7-mile sandbar, the end of which was a great hideout) and hung there to see what these Mob guys would do. Auntie Glo told them i'd run away, told em to confirm with my Mom (who didnt stop crying for like 3 wks even tho we hated each other), they called, came up on the weekend and confirmed again without letting anyone know why they were looking for me (cuz of the shame on their daughter, i guess), and there was sumn else i don't remember that convinced me i better blow town.
LSS, i didn't listen to a stereo in leisure for months afterward and, if you know your psychedelics, the songs you base trips on make their own heavy rotation in your head with strong recency bias, so my first several weeks hitchhiking America, i did so singing the sparklingly lean & plaintive Little Wing and the rebel anthem If 6 Was 9. So no guitar duels or even the best solo instrumentalists or Bobby Whitworth yowling behind Clapton or towheaded yoga####ers with weakass jazz charts is going to put me off the clarion call of the original version. And now i've missed the 1st Q of Bears/Rams.....
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Gr00vus
Footballguy
"If you think I'll sit around while you chip away my brain, listen I ain't foolin' and you'd better think again."
16: You've Got Another Thing Comin', Judas Priest, 1982
This is flipping the bird to the world in song form. An ode to high school level male machismo, where you think you can take on the universe solo and win. Well, life usually doesn't play out that way for just about everyone, but damn if this song doesn't make you feel like you could pull it off for the 5 minutes you're listening to it. My favorite metal track by far. The now classic Priest double axe attack of Tipton and Downing, Ian Hill and Dave Holland locking on the straight ahead rhythm and of course Rob Halford alerting the world of his presence. Halford is more soulful than shrieky on this one, which is a plus for me. Then of course there's the head explode video, which was absolutely the most awesome thing ever for a 13 year old. The guitar riff is ####### epic, an all timer.
Back in the early 80's as pre-teen/teen you were either a New Wave/Punk guy or a Metal guy. And if you were one, you abhorred the other. I was a New Wave/Punk guy, so publicly I had to hate this song and this album at the time. Privately I knew (grudgingly at the time) they were both pretty great. As I've aged, I've come to accept the light metal leanings I have. The early 80's were a great time for metal too - bands like Priest, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, etc. (batsignal for @Evilgrin 72, or is it @Evilgrin72) were all in their prime. I never got into the trappings of 80's metal (the leather, studs, chains, long hair with bangs, etc.), but the music was good.
I also formed an affinity for this album (Screaming For Vengeance) because of Andrea M. Back in jr. high she was already all put together at the age of 13 or so, a ridiculously hot Latina who I got to sit next to in a couple of classes thanks to the vagaries of alphabetical seating charts. She was taken, and way out of my league, but that didn't stop me (or any boy with a pulse in that school) from looking - furtively I'd like to think. Anyway, that Halloween the school allowed some sort of dress up. She chose to be "metal girl", which meant a ton of makeup (particularly heavy on the eyeshadow/liner), teased up hair, jeans tighter than a sausage casing which highlighted her unreal caboose, and a t-shirt even tighter than that showcasing what she had up top. That t-shirt = the Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance logo t-shirt (pretty close to this one). I'm pretty sure I was pitching a tent in my OP corduroy shorts the entirety of typing class that day, probably took a few extra minutes after class to let things settle down before I got up from my desk. Later that night I did some screaming for vengeance of my own, definitely had another thing comin' multiple times. There wasn't enough bleach in the world to get that tube sock white again afterward. Anyway, I'll always love that logo. Thanks Andrea M.
It's a great album, and they're a great band. I've always wondered what the dynamic must have been like for them with Halford publicly in the closet, but I thought the band knew at the time. Must have been a tough experience for Halford too - metal wasn't exactly a safe haven for out homosexuals. Such a different time.
16: You've Got Another Thing Comin', Judas Priest, 1982
This is flipping the bird to the world in song form. An ode to high school level male machismo, where you think you can take on the universe solo and win. Well, life usually doesn't play out that way for just about everyone, but damn if this song doesn't make you feel like you could pull it off for the 5 minutes you're listening to it. My favorite metal track by far. The now classic Priest double axe attack of Tipton and Downing, Ian Hill and Dave Holland locking on the straight ahead rhythm and of course Rob Halford alerting the world of his presence. Halford is more soulful than shrieky on this one, which is a plus for me. Then of course there's the head explode video, which was absolutely the most awesome thing ever for a 13 year old. The guitar riff is ####### epic, an all timer.
Back in the early 80's as pre-teen/teen you were either a New Wave/Punk guy or a Metal guy. And if you were one, you abhorred the other. I was a New Wave/Punk guy, so publicly I had to hate this song and this album at the time. Privately I knew (grudgingly at the time) they were both pretty great. As I've aged, I've come to accept the light metal leanings I have. The early 80's were a great time for metal too - bands like Priest, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, etc. (batsignal for @Evilgrin 72, or is it @Evilgrin72) were all in their prime. I never got into the trappings of 80's metal (the leather, studs, chains, long hair with bangs, etc.), but the music was good.
I also formed an affinity for this album (Screaming For Vengeance) because of Andrea M. Back in jr. high she was already all put together at the age of 13 or so, a ridiculously hot Latina who I got to sit next to in a couple of classes thanks to the vagaries of alphabetical seating charts. She was taken, and way out of my league, but that didn't stop me (or any boy with a pulse in that school) from looking - furtively I'd like to think. Anyway, that Halloween the school allowed some sort of dress up. She chose to be "metal girl", which meant a ton of makeup (particularly heavy on the eyeshadow/liner), teased up hair, jeans tighter than a sausage casing which highlighted her unreal caboose, and a t-shirt even tighter than that showcasing what she had up top. That t-shirt = the Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance logo t-shirt (pretty close to this one). I'm pretty sure I was pitching a tent in my OP corduroy shorts the entirety of typing class that day, probably took a few extra minutes after class to let things settle down before I got up from my desk. Later that night I did some screaming for vengeance of my own, definitely had another thing comin' multiple times. There wasn't enough bleach in the world to get that tube sock white again afterward. Anyway, I'll always love that logo. Thanks Andrea M.
It's a great album, and they're a great band. I've always wondered what the dynamic must have been like for them with Halford publicly in the closet, but I thought the band knew at the time. Must have been a tough experience for Halford too - metal wasn't exactly a safe haven for out homosexuals. Such a different time.
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wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Not much to say about the song, tho i always thought Priest was the most str8ahead rock band in a genre i dont much care for nor relate to, but i got stories. Lord help me, i got 2 connections to the band thru living in Reno:
1) I won't tell any personal details but my first job in Reno was as a psych tech on the adolescent unit @ Truckee Meadows Hospital - where i met my Mary - in the mid 80s and one of our patients was the nasty piece o' work who survived the Judas Priest suicide pact (shot his jaw off, tho).
2) I played golf with KKDowning and one of Priest's mgmt team several years later when they were in town for the trial. I was playing my regular Tuesday round @ the biggest li'l city's Washoe course (beautiful old place flawed by its design to be played an hour quicker than normal courses in order to get high-rollers back to the casinos quicker) with my poker pals Dean, Vito & Fred when we were hit down on by the foursome behind us. We shouted back at those 3 guys and they responded by hitting down on us again. Vito & Fred would biff a guy just for lookin at em wrong and, when we got close enough to see they were longhairs, it was rumble time. The two blond guys were ready to go, but the other one instantly scrambled to make peace and had a proper British accent and you can't just pop a Limey. I don't know if the 3rd guy was band or crew, but we ironed it out and they bought us a drink after and the mgr invited Dean (scratch golfer, mellow dood) and me to play 18 with em a few days later. Didn't talk about nothing noteworthy, but that's that.
Gr00vus
Footballguy
You had me until Fred. How could he not have gotten a better moniker at least for poker purposes?
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Saw JP do this song live just a few months ago. Still has that power vibe all good metal needs and thrives on.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Fred was a hoot. Vito was my running buddy, probably the closest male friend i've ever had (my mentor and poker HOFer Jack Straus called him the "best & worst mind####er I ever saw @ a card table"), but Fred was sumn. I know this is weird but, if Clark Gable was a tall blond guy from the midwest, that's Fred. Big league pitching prospect from DesMoines who blew out his arm, life was a 94 mph fastball to him but he was one of the best family men i ever seen. I'd be dead or in jail if it wasn't for him, cuz he was not only the guy i could call on 24/7 (as long as he wasn't fammin') he's the guy i did call. He babysat me thru countless nights of horror with or over Mary's dying, including helping me score morphine on the street for her pain and once rushing in to rescue me after a friend of ours called him to tell him i was in a jackpot (a dealer i went to score from had just been flipped by the cops so it was a set-up) when even Vito wouldnt. Just a monstrously sweet, free-whelling lug who'd invite me over for breakfast after a nite of gambling/partying and go out back and pour the bacon grease on his giant dog's poops so the beast would eat his own pile up til he could get him out on a walk. That's Fred - can;t change that.
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
Is it that eclectic? Looks like all rock and disco mostly released in the 70s and 80s
Gr00vus
Footballguy
""The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back."
15: Fire On High, The Electric Light Orchestra, 1975
I'm not a big prog or orchestral rock fan, but I've always loved this band since I first heard them. Go figure. This track is a journey, from the insidious opening mischief (including the backwards lyrics) to the thunderous conclusion, with some great acoustic guitar riffs, ELO's signature string ensemble, a sterling application of the keys/organ (a Moog possibly?) and a full on choir doing the soaring vocal work. On top of all that, the thing that makes the track an all time favorite for me is the power drumming. By Bev Bevan. I mean, if you called up the most hackneyed screen writer of all time and asked them to come up with a name for a British rock drummer, they couldn't have done better than Bev Bevan (except maybe Nicko McBrain, but Nicko isn't actually Michael Henry's given name so Beverley "Bev" Bevan has a leg up). I think all British rock drummers since should be named Bev Bevan.
Anyway he and Jeff Lynne created an epic drum sound for the ages on the Face The Music album, and this track is the peak exemplar of it. It's sooooo low, tending toward muddy with gong like crash after crash and a clear clanging ride cymbal. Just a huge sound. Bevan provides the time with Herculean strength and then finishes things off with a cluster of blistering fills. If you didn't want to play drums prior to hearing this track, you probably do now.
This track got played behind a bunch of stuff in other media. Most notably for me was its use as the opening of CBS's weekend sports show back in the 70's.
More minor trivia: that's Bev Bevan providing the backwards speaking at the beginning of the track. Go put the record on your turn table and spin it backwards to get the full effect.
I know it's easy to slag this band off as a Beatles want to be. And often times their work was pretty derivative (but still great). However, I don't think the Beatles come up with a track like this even if they'd stayed together. It's just too heavy.
15: Fire On High, The Electric Light Orchestra, 1975
I'm not a big prog or orchestral rock fan, but I've always loved this band since I first heard them. Go figure. This track is a journey, from the insidious opening mischief (including the backwards lyrics) to the thunderous conclusion, with some great acoustic guitar riffs, ELO's signature string ensemble, a sterling application of the keys/organ (a Moog possibly?) and a full on choir doing the soaring vocal work. On top of all that, the thing that makes the track an all time favorite for me is the power drumming. By Bev Bevan. I mean, if you called up the most hackneyed screen writer of all time and asked them to come up with a name for a British rock drummer, they couldn't have done better than Bev Bevan (except maybe Nicko McBrain, but Nicko isn't actually Michael Henry's given name so Beverley "Bev" Bevan has a leg up). I think all British rock drummers since should be named Bev Bevan.
Anyway he and Jeff Lynne created an epic drum sound for the ages on the Face The Music album, and this track is the peak exemplar of it. It's sooooo low, tending toward muddy with gong like crash after crash and a clear clanging ride cymbal. Just a huge sound. Bevan provides the time with Herculean strength and then finishes things off with a cluster of blistering fills. If you didn't want to play drums prior to hearing this track, you probably do now.
This track got played behind a bunch of stuff in other media. Most notably for me was its use as the opening of CBS's weekend sports show back in the 70's.
More minor trivia: that's Bev Bevan providing the backwards speaking at the beginning of the track. Go put the record on your turn table and spin it backwards to get the full effect.
I know it's easy to slag this band off as a Beatles want to be. And often times their work was pretty derivative (but still great). However, I don't think the Beatles come up with a track like this even if they'd stayed together. It's just too heavy.
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Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
One of ELOs better tracks, a rock orchestra done exactly right.
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Well, i have personal & musical reasons for being everlastingly disappointed by ELO. I got an hour here, so i'll go into em both.
When i ran away from home i headed straight for Cali cuz winter was coming. When spring broke, i was homesick and headed east. My Auntie kept me up on fam & the baby & whether it was safe (not), but would not put me up without telling my folks about it. I was 16, as were most of my friends, so there wasn't a lot of options on places to stay. Boston offered anonymity so i knocked around shelters and flophouses (btw, i always had a hustle as a kid & was making $100s/month selling LSD before i ran away, so $$ was not a big prob) until i met this kid who knew of a huge loft in the Back Bay where a lot of hippies and students were cordoning off their own cubicles with blankets & ropes and he got me in.
Changed my life cuz, thru parties w loft folk, i made a lot of friends @ Berklee School of Music and some folks who were already working who became important to my own entry into the biz a few yrs later. There was one guy, Mike Kamen (New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, did soundtracks for like 40 Hollywood pictures til he died of MS) whom i resembled so closely (cept for being a LOT taller) that folks would corner me and start talking music stuff with "Mike". We became friends based solely on that.
Here's the connection - Mike''s favorite record at the time was this (a great record with tons of promise of what might come from it), Jeff Lynne's first record with The Move, one of Britain's hottest bands that never really made it over here. Mike loved England (he ended up doing as many string arrangements for British rockers as Madman on the Water's Paul Buckmaster), had met Jeff & Bev & the entirely insane and fun Roy Wood, who was determined to integrate classical instruments into rock & roll (not as string sections but amplified instruments), which fascinated Mike. Anyway, Lynne & The Move both had record deals they couldnt get out of so they worked simultaneously on Move records and their passion project, which they planned to release as soon as they were free to.
Mike had heard some of the tapes and said it was the 2nd coming of music. Well i was hyped just to get inside stuff like this so i bought the 1st Electric Light Orchestra album when i didnt even have a home to play it in. Listened to the unmitigated disaster 4 or 5 times and left it at the house where i played it. The failure was pretty much it for Lynne & Bevans cooperation with Mad Roy. Knowing he was the genius in the band, I bought Roy Wood albums for over a decade afterward hoping he would realize the promise that my pal Mike saw in him but....................................nope.
Jeff Lynne's a helluva songwriter, i'm as high on Bev as you (he and Tull's original bassist, Glen Cornick, were my sneaky-cool "dream rhythm section" when i used to argue such things as a kid) but, even without the Beatle-rehash prob, ELO just always sounds hollow & cheap to me. And it just so happens that Fire On High suffers a similar deficiency to your EDM stuff. TONS of wonderful stuff in that song, but none of it is resolved. When you have 3 or 4 disparate themes or riffs that work together well enough to include in the same song, why cant you go a little farther and tie them together?! Theme, variation, resolution - that's what songwriting is. Make the "basketball" riff and the mellotron stuff come together even for a short closing line. It's the musical equivalent of a romcom without kiss, a Seinfeld ep without the stories coming together or, worse, a Rush track. Grrrreat stuff, disappointing piece.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
I'll give wikkid a big plus for the Seinfeld analogy, that tying together of the story lines is what set it apart of almost every other sitcom.
But guess what, i am a fan of the kitchen sink approach. It still beats the basic repitition of most pop music.
But guess what, i am a fan of the kitchen sink approach. It still beats the basic repitition of most pop music.
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Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
And this is the thing to me. Any one song by ELO (or - God help me - Yes, ELP, Floyd, etc....) are fine. But they all seem empty to me when taken in large batches. I know Groovus isn't touting careers, but stuff like this - which is fun by itself in small doses - has to lead into the other music made by these artists. It's all craft over feeling and that's just not my thing.
That said, this record in a vacuum, is fun.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
Interesting, I don't think I've ever heard the first 1:30 of that song.""The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back."
15: Fire On High, The Electric Light Orchestra, 1975
I'm not a big prog or orchestral rock fan, but I've always loved this band since I first heard them. Go figure. This track is a journey, from the insidious opening mischief (including the backwards lyrics) to the thunderous conclusion, with some great acoustic guitar riffs, ELO's signature string ensemble, a sterling application of the keys/organ (a Moog possibly?) and a full on choir doing the soaring vocal work. On top of all that, the thing that makes the track an all time favorite for me is the power drumming. By Bev Bevan. I mean, if you called up the most hackneyed screen writer of all time and asked them to come up with a name for a British rock drummer, they couldn't have done better than Bev Bevan (except maybe Nicko McBrain, but Nicko isn't actually Michael Henry's given name so Beverley "Bev" Bevan has a leg up). I think all British rock drummers since should be named Bev Bevan.
Anyway he and Jeff Lynne created an epic drum sound for the ages on the Face The Music album, and this track is the peak exemplar of it. It's sooooo low, tending toward muddy with gong like crash after crash and a clear clanging ride cymbal. Just a huge sound. Bevan provides the time with Herculean strength and then finishes things off with a cluster of blistering fills. If you didn't want to play drums prior to hearing this track, you probably do now.
This track got played behind a bunch of stuff in other media. Most notably for me was its use as the opening of CBS's weekend sports show back in the 70's.
More minor trivia: that's Bev Bevan providing the backwards speaking at the beginning of the track. Go put the record on your turn table and spin it backwards to get the full effect.
I know it's easy to slag this band off as a Beatles want to be. And often times their work was pretty derivative (but still great). However, I don't think the Beatles come up with a track like this even if they'd stayed together. It's just too heavy.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
bryhamm
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
"If you're feeling lost and alone, if you need a ride let me know."
14: Cherry, Lisa Shaw, 2005
Though Lisa Shaw is categorized as house/electronica, this track is more akin to straight ahead R&B IMO. There are hardly any non-digital instruments on this one - I think just the bass and a couple of guitar accents. They did a good job with programming the drum loop and used decent samples for it. That bit with the bass drum pattern is nice - I actually practice this whole drum part even though it's not played "live" on the record because it's an interesting beat. The syncopated cow bell pattern is cool also. The music track provides the perfect atmospheric background for rich, beautiful vocals supplied by Shaw (and possibly Jennifer Karr backing). It's a great melody on top of some fantastic harmonies - all of it cloying and dead sexy. They make some unexpected choices for the notes they hit, and it all just works. At the point in my life when this song came out the lyrics resonated as well, particularly the ones quoted above.
Though the tone is cool, there's an underlying passion in this song that makes it great to me. The sincere offer to be whatever is needed at the time to someone else (though the main implication is in a sexual way, I feel all qualities are on the table here) gets me every time. Each of us deserves to have someone sing a song like this just to us alone at least once in our lives. It'll never happen of course, but I think the world would be just that much better of a place, and we'd all be more well adjusted people if we could pull that off somehow.
This song is the last in the 3rd tier of songs in this list. Kind of like you have tiers in your fantasy sport evaluations. You could have selected the songs between this and #50 in any order and it'd be fine.
14: Cherry, Lisa Shaw, 2005
Though Lisa Shaw is categorized as house/electronica, this track is more akin to straight ahead R&B IMO. There are hardly any non-digital instruments on this one - I think just the bass and a couple of guitar accents. They did a good job with programming the drum loop and used decent samples for it. That bit with the bass drum pattern is nice - I actually practice this whole drum part even though it's not played "live" on the record because it's an interesting beat. The syncopated cow bell pattern is cool also. The music track provides the perfect atmospheric background for rich, beautiful vocals supplied by Shaw (and possibly Jennifer Karr backing). It's a great melody on top of some fantastic harmonies - all of it cloying and dead sexy. They make some unexpected choices for the notes they hit, and it all just works. At the point in my life when this song came out the lyrics resonated as well, particularly the ones quoted above.
Though the tone is cool, there's an underlying passion in this song that makes it great to me. The sincere offer to be whatever is needed at the time to someone else (though the main implication is in a sexual way, I feel all qualities are on the table here) gets me every time. Each of us deserves to have someone sing a song like this just to us alone at least once in our lives. It'll never happen of course, but I think the world would be just that much better of a place, and we'd all be more well adjusted people if we could pull that off somehow.
This song is the last in the 3rd tier of songs in this list. Kind of like you have tiers in your fantasy sport evaluations. You could have selected the songs between this and #50 in any order and it'd be fine.
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wikkidpissah
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
Rhythm track WAY too front onnat. I was pumped when it opened w a DonnaSummer vibe and didnt go right to that monotonic-monologue 1st verse so many songs have now, then this woodpecker of a snare starts peckin' on my earhole. push that back, front the mellotron, throw in a coupla half-step changes, you got some sweep, some sway, some swag, my brother
Gr00vus
Footballguy
As a person who likes listening to music, I have to say I agree with you. As a drummer (even if this is a compu-drum track) I say - get bent!
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
And, since i wasnt that invested in today's song, it's time to take this on.
I don't argue taste, because you can't argue taste, but there's a little more to this post than taste. I've been on quite a bit in this and the "Is rock dead?" threads about the difference between entertainment and art. An art critic i respect divided the arts into two categories - comforting & challenging. "Comforting" gives one a fast, easy and sure conclusion to make about it. She went so far as to say that Serrano's Piss Christ (a crucifix in a jar of urine) was not challenging, but comforting art because, for all the outrage surrounding it, the message was indisputable.
My father was a hard-working guy. Idle time is wasted time and @ 93yo he would still rather have a drill than a drink in his hand. He pretty much hates everything that has happened since 1950 (including me) simply because leisure, and not proving your worth, became the abiding pursuit in American society. That includes music - he loves his swing because he was a great dancer (proving himself with trophies), combo jazz (he started taking me to a local jazz club when i was 9) that didnt bop too hard, like Erroll Garner, Fatha Hines, Chet Baker, Charlie Byrd on nights out, but his listening music was all crooners & instrumental drivel like Montevani & Bert Kaempfert and these Yaddayadda Singers or those LaDeDaDee Singers singing "Roll Out the Barrel" or being hep by turning "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" into tapioca pudding. He worked hard and wanted to be soothed, relaxed, patted on the head and told he was doin' good because he'd done his part to make the normal commonplace.
He has therefore hated every electric instrument chord he ever heard worse than commies or swarthies or Catholics.
I love em all, of course. That's my job. He seethes to consider that his son has perpetrated ANY of the stories i've told on this board and explodes at the ease by which i've done so. God bless him, i love that he built wheelbarrows for all his brothers at age 7, didn't graduate high school til 21 in order to save the family farm for his invalided father, worked three jobs while taking his Masters, didn't buy a new car til his 30s or a home til 40 even though he had a dozen patents (including the growlight) by then, that he announced when i was 10 that he could either save for my education or have vacations (he was also pissed that my Irish auntie had left me a trust which allowed me to go to Dublin every summer) and, since i was in the 99.99 percentile, i was gonna hafta be a scholarship kid so he could go to Florida.
But, more, i love every notion, motion or potion that violated any of his sensibilities. So, when i listened to jazz, it was not only 'Trane, but Ornette, Sun Ra. Art Ensemble of Chicago; to rock, Stones, Animals, Lennon, Fuggs, outlaw country over Conway Twitty, etc etc. Me Da, 99% perspiration - wikkid, 99% inspiration.
I live to be challenged. With jazz it was the reach, not the grasp. In classical the scale, not the order. In pop, the audacity within the form. In soul, church. And, in rock, the whole shooter, baby - Troof, audacity, scale, the art of noise, arching themes, brilliant realization. It's still the only art which can explore the unknown, break your heart, make you dance, tell your fortune, take you to the stars and bring you home. And the more bold the attempt, the more i'll like it and the more i'll require from it. For my money Peter Gabriel, with and after Genesis, has gone the farthest, attempted the most, answered more questions, changed the world (apartheid might have ended without "Biko", but not as surely & quickly) the most, with Hendrix close behind.
As Carl Sagan liked to say, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs" and a lot of prog failed on that basis and fell back on the craft Uruk cites, but those attempts at bringing symphonic heft & artistic elements to rock were often more legit than Otis or Etta rippin out some hearts and will usually get more of my attention.
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Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Someone should bookmark all of wikkids posts and turn it into some sort of advanced Kindle download. But just don't forget to cut him into the profits.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
sportsfan may do that, since he's liking (literally) every post in GM's thread. He's up to around March 2015 now. I've gotten more likes from him the last week or so than I have in my 20 years here.
Mister CIA
Footballguy
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Mister CIA
Footballguy
Mister CIA
Footballguy
Bossman
Footballguy
I just turned 50 myself and the music listed is very interesting.
Many songs that I've never heard ... and genres all over the map. I'm enjoying going thru the list and sampling.
With some of your selections, makes me wonder how other bands weren't in your wheelhouse.
Growing up in the 80's and as a young adult in the 90's, lots of bands I would expect to see that I didn't ...
Cure, Smiths, Depeche Mode, U2, Tool, Radiohead, INXS, The Clash, ... and no Bob Marley?
Maybe these are too mainstream for your taste? ... or your taste in music has evolved beyond these bands. Maybe one of these makes the top 10?
That said, I don't think that I'd be able to pick just 50 of my favorite songs. I'd need to list about 300. I'll post them on my 300th birthday.
Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to the top selections due up.
Many songs that I've never heard ... and genres all over the map. I'm enjoying going thru the list and sampling.
With some of your selections, makes me wonder how other bands weren't in your wheelhouse.
Growing up in the 80's and as a young adult in the 90's, lots of bands I would expect to see that I didn't ...
Cure, Smiths, Depeche Mode, U2, Tool, Radiohead, INXS, The Clash, ... and no Bob Marley?
Maybe these are too mainstream for your taste? ... or your taste in music has evolved beyond these bands. Maybe one of these makes the top 10?
That said, I don't think that I'd be able to pick just 50 of my favorite songs. I'd need to list about 300. I'll post them on my 300th birthday.
Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to the top selections due up.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
Made some good progress on this recently. Current status:
973 artists identified
756 songs with preliminary bucket ranking.
163 songs identified yet to be ranked.
54 artists that I still need to pick a song>
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Gr00vus
Footballguy
Some of those bands were in the mix but as you say a cut down to 50 is tough and worthies get left out. That was part of the fun of the exercise - the hard choices forcing you to refine which ones you hold closest. Marley is in there with the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, etc. in that I've heard it all just too many times to top tier love it. I have no problem with mainstream because it's mainstream, it's just a wearing out sort of thing. Granted some things I've posted should be in that category too, but for whatever reason they've stuck with me and still feel fresh.
You should give it a shot. I think I've actually learned a bit more about what makes me tick musically in the process. I'm hoping I can sum that up somehow at the end of this.
